Take off equipment is used to unwind strands of material that have been pre-wound onto cores. The pre-wound cores are called packages. Take off equipment unwinds a strand and then feeds the unwound strand to downstream equipment. Take off equipment can unwind packages in sequence while continuously feeding the downstream equipment. Each package has a single continuous strand of material with a leading end and a trailing end. In a take off process, the trailing end of a first package can be joined to the leading end of second package.
As take off equipment finishes unwinding the first (active) package, it pulls off the trailing end, which pulls off the leading end of the second (standby) package, which begins the unwinding of the second package. The standby package becomes the new active package. The finished first package can be replaced with a new standby package. This process of connecting ends and replacing packages can be repeated indefinitely. Thus, in a take off process, there is no need to stop the downstream equipment to replace packages.
One type of take-off equipment uses rotating arms. Each arm has one or more strand guides to direct the strand. For this type of take-off equipment, to transfer the unwinding from an active package to a standby package at line speed, the strand must be properly routed to enable the strand to maintain a proper orientation with respect to the packages, the strand guides, and the downstream equipment.